Saturday Night Live is celebrating it's 40th anniversary this year and it's had some very memorable cast members (Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Adam Sandler to name a few) at studio 8H, and then there are some people who are very memorable actors, but we all sort of forgot their brief moments on the sketch comedy.
1. Robert Downey Jr. (85-86)
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Robert Downey Jr. as suitcase boy, giving a "confrontational monologue"...it's not all that surprising he lasted only 1 season. But he's clearly moved on to bigger and better things.
2. Anthony Michael Hall (85-86)
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To this day, Anthony Michael Hall still holds the title for youngest cast member on SNL, having joined when he was only 17-years-old in order to break his "geek" film typecast. He later admit he'd underestimated how competitive the show was.
3. Gilbert Gottfried (80-81)
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We thought it was impossible to forget that voice, but it was on SNL for a year.
4. Damon Wayans (85-86)
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Wayans is best known for his time on In loving Color, it's easy to forget the year he spent at SNL.
5. Jenny Slate (09-10)
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You may or may not remember her time on SNL, as it wasn't that long ago, but you may remember someone dropping the F-bomb on live TV for the first time on this show. That was her.
6. Ben Stiller (1989)
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His time as a featured player was brief, but this Weekend Update review of Rain Man with SNL legend Mike Meyers was a shining moment.
7. Billy Crystal (84-85)
NBC/YouTube
If you've been following SNL since the early days, you might not have forgotten about Billy Crystal and the many characters he portrayed in his 1-season run, but maybe you forgot the time he got Mr. T and Hulk Hogan to crack up on live TV.
8. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (82-85)
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Maybe you're obsessed with Veep or still haven't gotten over Seinfeld, either way with such an extensive career, it's easy to forget Julia's early days on SNL (though she was the youngest woman ever cast at at 21-years-old).
9. Sarah Silverman (93-94)
NBC/YouTube
While there aren't many (if any) videos of Sarah's stint (she did mainyl write) on SNL 22 years ago, she does say she's happy that doesn't define her career.
10. Joan Cusack (85-86)
NBC/Yahoo
Her short time on SNL wasn't a bump in the road, but actually the spark that ignited her 30+ year career.
11. Rob Riggle (04-05)
NBC/Yahoo
You may not always recognize Rob Riggle by name, but you'll easily remember him from 21 Jump Street and Step Brothers. During his short time on SNL, he did impressions of Larry the Cable Guy, Toby Keith, and Howard Dean.
12. David Koechner (95-96)
NBC/Hulu
Before his Anchorman days, he became buddies with Will Ferrell when they were both cast members on this show.
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Over the almost 50 years of Saturday Night Live, there have been plenty of seasons that were good (more than most casual observers would like to admit) and bad (some spectacularly so). There was, though, only one 1984: quite possibly the strangest season in the history of the show.
With Eddie Murphy completely gone to pursue his superstar movie career and the second most recognizable cast member, Joe Piscopo, having worn out his welcome after the 1983 - '84 season, executive producer Dick Ebersol was left without a star. The remaining cast members, including a young Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jim Belushi, had never quite fit in with the show and were largely dissatisfied with the way that they had been treated. Many people figured that Murphy leaving would finally signal the death knell for SNL.
Righting a Wrong
Instead of trying to develop another young talent like Murphy, Ebersol turned to more established comedians, including one who had almost been part of the original SNL cast. By 1984, Billy Crystal was already a well known entertainer after his stint on the sitcom Soap and his numerous talk show appearances where he imitated celebrities like boxer Mohammed Ali, but in 1974 Crystal had been cut from the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players on the eve of the show's debut. Why that happened depends largely on who tells the story, but whatever the case, when Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and Dan Aykroyd rocketed to fame, Crystal wasn’t with them. Nor was he offered the spot that went to Bill Murray when Chase left after the first season. Ten years later, Crystal was finally being given the chance to right what he considered a wrong.
The Rest of the Gang
Along with Crystal, Ebersol brought in Martin Short, who had already been a cast member of Canada's SCTV (which launched the careers of John Candy, Rick Moranis, and Catherine O'Hara), as well as Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, fresh off their success in This Is Spinal Tap. Rich Hall, who had been part of an ensemble HBO comedy show called Not Necessarily the News, and Pamela Stephenson, who had been on the British precursor (Not the Nine O'clock News) of Hall's HBO show rounded out the new cast members. It was an odd turn of events considering that Crystal hosted SNL twice the season before he joined the cast, while Guest and Shearer had made a guest appearance as part of Spinal Tap.
The Season
Crystal, Short, and Guest wasted little time putting their stamp on the creative vacuum that they walked into. Ebersol was by all accounts a very good network executive, but he was not a comedian and didn’t come from a creative background. By the season opener, Crystal was already doing his Fernando Lamas impression ("You look mah-velous!") and Short had brought his Ed Grimley character with him from SCTV. By the third show, Crystal and Guest had worked up a breakout routine with their characters Willie and Frankie, who would continuously one-up each other with pain-inducing practices ("I hate it when that happens"). The show never missed a chance to exploit the new popular sketches — a hallmark of the Ebersol era — with Crystal doing his Fernando so frequently that the character almost deserved a separate credit in the opening theme.
More than any season before or since, the show relied on pre-taped segments, with Guest, Shearer, and Short preferring to work that way. While it went against the grain of SNL, some of the short films, particularly Shearer and Short playing aspiring male synchronized swimmers and Guest and Crystal portraying aged Negro League baseball stars were as good as anything that the show had produced.
The Oddness
Perhaps the best remembered episode of the season is the one hosted by wrestler Hulk Hogan and Mr. T to promote the first Wrestlemania. In the most famous segment, the pair appears with Crystal on his "Fernando Hideaway" sketch and can't keep a straight face. While Murphy returned to host and the Beatles' Ringo Starr took a turn, the other hosts included figures like Jesse Jackson, Howard Cosell, and Bob Uecker. The first show of the season didn't even have a host.
Additionally, there was little continuity with the show's fake news segment — called "Saturday Night News" instead of "Weekend Update" — with the show's host sometimes doing the anchoring and real newscaster Edwin Newman sitting in once before Guest finally took over midway through the season.
In stark contrast to the hosts, the seasons musical guests were a who's who of mid-80s pop, with acts like The Thompson Twins, Billy Ocean, Bryan Adams, and super-groups The Honey Drippers (featuring Robert Plant), and Power Station (featuring Robert Palmer) all making appearances.
The Aftermath
When an industry-wide writers' strike halted production in early March 1985, the show didn’t return from the forced hiatus. The abbreviated season ended after just 17 episodes. NBC was unhappy with spiraling production costs and Ebersol was unhappy with his creative staff. Shearer had quit the show in January citing creative differences ("I was creative and they were different," he said later). Short and Guest didn't want to keep doing a live show. Louis-Dreyfus and Belushi (along with fellow holdover Mary Gross) had been used so little throughout the season that they wanted out. Crystal, enjoying the biggest success of his career, was seemingly the only one who wanted it to continue.
Ebersol demanded a retooling, wanting to change the format to a completely taped show and with possibly a fixed rotation of guest hosts (his ideas for the rotation included Piscopo and David Letterman). Instead, NBC briefly canceled the show. After rethinking things, the network's executives decided that they would agree to give SNL another chance… if its original creator, Lorne Michaels, would take back over.
Then and Now
Eventually, Michaels agreed to return to the show and retained none of the cast or writers from the previous season. Taking a page from Ebersol's book, Michaels tried to use established actors like Randy Quaid and Anthony Michael Hall (along with Robert Downey Jr. and Joan Cusack) to re-launch the show… which very nearly did lead to the show being canceled permanently. It wasn't until the following season when Michaels entrusted SNL to virtual unknowns like Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson, Jon Lovitz, Jan Hooks, and Dennis Miller that the show started the run that finally established it as the institution it has become.
The goodwill that the show had gained from Crystal, Short and Guest's lone season helped carry it through Michaels' disastrous first season back. Thirty years later, the 1984 - '85 season remains an oddly alluring anomaly in the long comedic history of SNL.

Can Mark Burnett, the man that created a television sensation with Survivor and earned ratings gold with The Bible, do the same thing with Mexican wrestling? That's what writer-director-producer Robert Rodriguez is hoping after his fledging El Rey Network cable channel announced plans to launch a U.S. based lucha libre show in conjunction with Burnett's One Three Media and Lucha Libre AAA, the top wrestling league in Mexico. The hour-long show will begin airing during the second half of 2014.
This isn't the first time that Hollywood has tried to make U.S. audiences care about the Mexican wrestling sensation. Jack Black donned a mask as a would-be wrestler in Nacho Libre and an animated show called ¡Mucha Lucha! aired on Kids' WB from 2002-'05. Those weren't the real thing, however, with wrestlers in stylized masks flying off the top rope and doing moves like tornillos and planchas.
"Wrestling is a billion-dollar business in the U.S.," Burnett said in the press release announcing the partnership. "Our new lucha libre will make that market even bigger."
The last time that U.S. professional wrestlers wore masks on a regular basis, Vince McMahon was still wearing ugly plaid sports jackets as an announcer, the broadcasts aired on WTBS (when there was still a 'W'), and it was called Georgia Championship Wrestling. By the time that Hulk Hogan, 'Captain' Lou Albano and Cyndi Lauper were taking wrestling mainstream on MTV in the mid-'80s, the masked wrestlers were a thing of the past.
So, can an upstart lucha libre league cut into McMahon's WWE dominated market? Crossing over into the non-Latino market might still be a tough sell. The style of wrestling — athletic and high-flying —is exciting and entertaining. The issue, as it's been in the past, will be the masks. Whether it's Hogan or John Cena or The Rock, U.S. audiences are accustomed to seeing faces.
The key for Burnett and company will be to highlight the acrobatic style, while quickly luring viewers into storylines of the Técnicos versus the Rudos: the good versus the bad. 'Heroes against villains' in wrestling is a storyline template that WWE audiences are well acquainted with.
If Burnett could get 100-plus million people to watch a History Channel miniseries about The Bible, who's to say that he can't get English-speaking audiences to sample the sizzle of lucha libre? At the very least, his track record lends credibility to El Rey's effort, which just might give the network a pierna (leg) up.
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We had more questions leaving the theater after seeing Iron Man 3 than Tony Stark has mechanical suits. Some just can't be answered. Like, how did Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian get the funding to fuel and equip a fleet of helicopters, commandeer a shipyard, stage faux terrorist attacks, and maintain a Miami pleasure palace? Wasn't the fact that he didn't get funding from Tony Stark a catalyst for his vendetta? And why the heck didn't Marvel decide to make Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts their first female superhero? We're not even going to attempt to tackle those particular headscratchers. Luckily, there are still eight juicy questions we very much can answer. Consider this your obligatory SPOILER warning, because we're taking on major plot points from Iron Man 3, including the ending and the future of the franchise.
1. How Does Extremis Work Exactly? Considering just how central it is to the plot and its primary villains, it's a little disappointing how nebulous a concept "Extremis" really is. The idea was introduced by comics author Warren Ellis in his 2005 Iron Man: Extremis series, the Iron Man story that's credited in large part for reviving interest in the character and establishing the aesthetic template of the three movies. In that comic, as in in Iron Man 3, frustrated bioengineers Aldrich Killian (Pearce) and Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) developed a medical treatment, involving injections that would require the test subject to be strapped-down Frankenstein-style, to "hack" into an individual's Body Recovery Center in the grey matter of the brain and artificially increase the body's rate of repair following incurred traumas. Theoretically, it could render the test subject invulnerable to any harm, much like a synthetically-induced version of Wolverine's rapid-healing mutation. (A shame that Fox has the rights to the X-Men property or that connection could have been made explicit.)
However, Extremis proved extremis-ly dangerous and not every test subject was capable of withstanding the transformation it offered. Some apparently just exploded, and so, in the movie, Killian and Hansen tried to deflect attention away from the faultiness of their product by creating a fictional terrorist, the Mandarin, who would assume responsibility for the blasts. Extremis is pretty conceptual and its logic isn't entirely consistent. There doesn't seem to be a formula for why some people adapt to it and others so violently reject it. Not to mention there's no explanation whatsoever for why it allows Killian to breathe fire.
2. What Is Westworld and Why Did Tony Stark Make a Joke About It? Westworld was a 1973 thriller written and directed by Jurassic Park scribe Michael Crichton and starring Yul Brynner. It was about a dystopian amusement park geared for adults in which visitors are menaced by animatronic cowboys. So when Tony Stark called one of Killian's henchmen "Westworld" he was basically saying that he found that guy to be wooden and personality-lacking, yet indestructibly formidable as an opponent.
3. How Is It That Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Pearce Are So Incredibly Buff? The answer is pretty simple. They don't just train for each individual movie they're in, but rather they maintain a high level of physical fitness at all times. (Or maybe those green health shakes Tony Stark is always drinking in the movies have something to do with it.) Pearce actually entered bodybuilding competitions as a teen. "I was quite a thin kid, so if I put on any muscle, you can see it...I entered [a bodybuilding competition] and I won," Pearce told Muscle Works Magazine. "I don’t think I would’ve really followed a bodybuilding path. But I was actually fascinated in a creative way, the fact that you can change the shape of your muscle was fascinating to me; it was like sculpture." Hence why Pearce has amazing definition in almost every movie he's been in since LA Confidential.
4. What Was Up With That Christmas Story Reference? Iron Man 3 executive producer and director emeritus Jon Favreau (who played the mostly comatose Happy Hogan in the movie, and directed the previous two films) was childhood friends with Christmas Story star Peter Billingsley. When Tony Stark turns to a bespectacled kid and says, "I loved you in Christmas Story," they're just making a family joke. In fact, Billingsley even served as a producer on 2008's Iron Man and had a cameo in the film. Since much of Iron Man 3 was set at the holidays, what better time to include a Christmas Story hat-tip to his friend?
By the way, in case you were wondering, that version of "Jingle Bells" that Tony Stark danced to while first summoning his Mk. 42 Iron Man suit was the Bombay Dub Orchestra's Remix of Joe Williams' bluesy take on the carol.
5. What Episode of Downton Abbey Was Jon Favreau's Happy Watching? By our reckoning this was Episode 4 from Season 2 when the Irish-revolutionary chaffeur, Branson, redeclared his love for Lady Sybil, then working as a nurse in the final months of World War I. Who knew Happy was such a romantic?
6. How Did They Shoot Iron Man's Aerial Rescue? Think that scene of Air Force One's passengers getting sucked into the stratosphere was all CGI? Think again. Stunt performers trained in skydiving actually jumped out of a plane to simulate the freefall, except that, unlike their characters, they actually were wearing parachutes. Multiple parajumpers, like stuntwoman Sarah Farooqui, who was the first person Iron Man plucked out of the sky, jumped at once and attempted to link arms Barrel-of-Monkeys-style in the sky above Oak Island, North Carolina, which subbed for Miami.
7. How Many Different Accents Has Ben Kingsley Had In His Career? Just keeping it limited to his movie career, Kingsley has demonstrated at least 10 different accents: Indian (Gandhi/The Love Guru), Arabic (Harem), Russian (Testimony), Yiddish (Bugsy), German Jewish (Schinder's List), Italian (Parting Shots), Iranian/Persian (House of Sand and Fog/Prince of Persia), French (Hugo), Cockney (Iron Man 3), Baptist Preacher (Iron Man 3). And the last two are while playing the same character!
8. What Is the Future of the Franchise? As of right now, there isn't an Iron Man 4 in the works. It makes sense, really. Iron Man 3 wrapped up Tony Stark's four-film arc (including The Avengers) pretty neatly, with him accepting the transformation of his values that had come with being Iron Man while rejecting the idea of being a superhero because of how it endangers his loved ones. He blew up his suits, finally had that shrapnel removed from his chest cavity, and seemed poised to embrace the good life.
But don't expect to see Tony Stark out of the suit for too long. In an interview with SuperHeroHype, Marvel Studios Head of Production Kevin Feige said, "We’re not developing Iron Man 4. Currently, as you may imagine, Iron Man is a big part of Avengers 2 and that’s what we’re focusing on and what Joss (Whedon) is focusing on. So where we go after that remains to be seen, but certainly, Avengers 2 being the next appearance, the next storyline for Iron Man. Do I think there will be another Iron Man movie? Of course I do. Who will be in that movie and who will be a part of that movie? Who knows? And how far down the line will it be? Will it be right after Avengers 2, will it be a few years after Avengers 2? Who knows?"
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt
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Following in the footsteps of The Avengers, the most comic booky of comic book movies, writer/director Shane Black has helped redefine the Marvel hero Iron Man for his third outing by giving the cold shoulder to the source material. It's hard to call Iron Man 3 a "comic book movie," even while Robert Downey, Jr. flies around in a destructive exoskeleton, aiming to put a stop to a baddie named The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and his fire-breathing minions. The movie plays more like a sequel to Black's 2005 neo-noir Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (also starring Downey, Jr.). Detective-esque voiceover, razor sharp banter, and an obstacle that has Tony Stark piecing together clues and rarely appearing in his iconic armor, Iron Man 3 avoids fantasy in favor of a hefty helping of pulp fiction. The setup makes way for Downey, Jr.'s best work in the franchise.
Iron Man 3 suggests that the whole flying-into-space-to-blow-up-a-worm-hole-and-almost-dying thing from The Avengers' Battle of New York took a toll on Tony. To cope with PTSD, he remains cooped up in his lab, endlessly building new Iron Man suits for whatever otherworldly adversary may hit him next. All the while, his girlfriend/replacement CEO Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) attempts to manage Tony's money machine, Stark Industries. The latest proposition for the tech conglomerate comes from nerd-turned-playboy Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), a man with clear resentment for Tony, who still pitches Pepper his latest creation (if only to woo her with genius). It's called Extremis, a genetic treatment that allows for unprecedented human regeneration. It also causes people to gain superhuman powers... with the potential of internal combustion — but hey, it's still in development.
There's an abidance of plot in Iron Man 3: along with Killian's sneaky schemes, The Mandarin, a bin Laden-like terrorist, is growing in power and detonating bombs in random places across the U.S.. Hoping to put a stop to him is Tony's BFF James Rhodes (Don Cheadle). He's painted his Iron Man armor Red, White and Blue to become Iron Patriot, crusader of the War on Terror. In a surprise to no one, intelligence gathered on The Mandarin continually leads him in the wrong directions. When one Mandarin attack hits too close to home, Tony is shaken out of his comfort zone. He goes on the offense, but his cocky attitude is his downfall. After an attack on his cliffside mansion (a tremendous sequence of architectural dismemberment), Tony is left on his butt in the middle of nowhere, with no one to help him.
Black's clear goal is to keep Tony out of the armor. The Marvel regime forces its movies to stylistically conform, keeping Iron Man 3 as flat and generic across the technical board. So Black innovates on the page as he did during his screenwriting days (he's the man behind Lethal Weapon and The Last Boyscout). Downey, Jr. is firing on all cylinders here, shooting off wisecracks faster than Iron Man's repulser rays and giving Tony something to grapple with. Black connects the character with one of the scariest companion tropes in all of filmmaking: "random helpful kid." It ends up working because Tony never loses his sardonic tone — when his 11-year-old helper reveals that his dad walked out a few years prior, Tony tells him to get over it (using very colorful language). They've got bad guys to fight. Completely rude, completely genuine. Downey, Jr. is one of the few performers who can drop that comedy gold then match it with a stunt-filled set piece.
Downey, Jr. isn't alone. Black has a dream cast for Iron Man 3, helping keep the convoluted plot in check with personality. Pearce has a ball with his diabolical Killian while Kingsley subverts every villain trope in the book. His performance as The Mandarin pulls the rug from under the audiences' feet with cackling glee. It might be Black's way of flipping the bird to die hard comic fans, but depending on your investment, Kingsley dominates the movie.
While Black injects his wry sensibilities into the superhero format, he also plays ball with the necessary evils. There's big action in Iron Man 3 and, unlike the previous two installments, it delivers. A scene in which Iron Man swoops through the sky to catch fallen airplane passengers will make your heart race. Whether it's incredible CG or practical stunts, the airborne wrangling feels all too real. Black has his classic '90s action moments too: if Iron Man 3 didn't have a swing-away-from-an-explosion moment, it wouldn't be a Shane Black movie.
Aside from a few raised eyebrows provoked by the film's logic, Downey, Jr. and Black once again found magic together — and on a scale worthy of summer blockbusters. Iron Man 3 easily tops the first two movies and starts the summer off with a bang and a sly wink to camera.
(And don't forget to stay after the credits — Marvel once again drops a scene that completes the film!)
4/5
What do you think? Tell Matt Patches directly on Twitter @misterpatches and read more of his reviews on Rotten Tomatoes!
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The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards are out. But while Denzel Washington is laughing for having fooled the Academy into thinking Flight is an Oscar-worthy movie, Anne Hathaway is crying into her celebratory mimosa, and Kathryn Bigelow is trying hard not to cry for a completely different reason, we are scratching our heads. Thursday morning's announcement has left us with myriad ponderables. Here are 10 burning questions that have us yelling, "We want answers!" and running to Google faster than a cheetah on a treadmill.
The Best Supporting Actor category has a reputation for being dominated by Hollywood's veteran gentlemen. But, before this year, has there ever been an acting category filled with actors who already have an Oscar in their trophy case?
Nope. This would be the first time. Christoph Waltz won for Inglorious Basterds in 2010, Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote in 2006, Robert De Niro for The Godfather: Part II (1975) and Raging Bull (1981), Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine in 2007, Tommy Lee Jones for The Fugitive in 1994.
This could be the third Oscar for Robert De Niro and Daniel Day-Lewis. Who else has three? And who has the most wins?
Actors Ingrid Bergman, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, and Walter Brennan all have three Oscars. But Katherine Hepburn beats them all with four Best Actress wins. Competitors in non-acting categories, however, rake in even more awards. Composer Alan Menken has eight, costume designer Edith Head has eight, visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren has nine, and Walt Disney has the distinction of winning the most Academy Awards — he has 22.
In addition to his hosting duties, Seth MacFarlane was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category. Is this the first time a host has also been up for an award?
Nope! Just two years ago, James Franco co-hosted with Anne Hathaway while he was also nominated for Best Actor for 127 Hours. And before Franco, six other hosts played dual roles on the big night: Frank Capra (1938), Bob Hope (1952), David Niven (1958), Michael Caine (1972), Walter Matthau (1975), and Paul Hogan (1986). Capra, Hope, and Niven also walked away with trophies their respective years.
Austrian tear-jerker Amour has five chances to take home a trophy this year. How many times has the same movie been nominated for Best Picture as well as Best Foreign Language Film? And has the same movie ever won the Oscar in both categories?
There have only been nine foreign language films nominated for Best Picture: Grand Illusion, 1938; Z, 1969; The Emigrants, 1972; Cries and Whispers, 1973; Il Postino, 1995; Life Is Beautiful, 1998; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000; Letters from Iwo Jima, 2006; and Amour, 2012. Of those movies Z, Life Is Beautiful, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won Best Foreign Language Film rather than Best Picture. The Emigrants is the only film to lose both. Grand Illusion was nominated before Best Foreign Language Film was created, Letters from Iwo Jima was ineligible because it was an American production, and Cries and Whispers and Il Postino were not nominated. No movie has ever won both categories.
Silver Linings Playbook has nominations in the five biggest categories (Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Screenwriting). Has a film ever swept all five?
In Oscar history there have been three films to sweep the major acting categories as well as take directing, screenwriting, and Best Picture awards: It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
While Argo and Zero Dark Thirty are considered frontrunners for the Best Picture win, their directors (Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow, respectively) weren't nominated for Best Director. Is it rare for a film to take home Best Picture and not Best Director?
In a word, yes. Of the 85 films that have been awarded Best Picture, 65 of them have also taken home the award for Best Director. And in only three instances have the directors of Best Picture-winning films not been nominated themselves — Wings (1928), Grand Hotel (1932), and Driving Miss Daisy (1989).
Eiko Ishioka, who passed away this year, is nominated for Best Achievement in Costume Design for her work on Mirror, Mirror. How many Oscars have been awarded posthumously?
There have been 15 posthumous awards won in the competitive categories out of 73 nominations for people who were also in the "In Memoriam" reel that year. The most recent winner was Heath Ledger in 2008 for Best Supporting Actor in The Dark Knight. Composer Howard Ashman has the most posthumous nominations (he has four). Art director William A. Horning has the most wins: he won two awards in two consecutive years, for Gigi in 1958 and Ben-Hur in 1959. In 1959 he was also nominated for art direction of North by Northwest. That's one busy corpse! In Ishioka's Best Costume Design category there have been four posthumous nominations (three for the same person) and zero wins.
Lincoln, which has so far raked in over $145 million at the box office, is the only Best Picture contender this year you could really call a "blockbuster." What was the lowest grossing film to ever take the Best Picture category?
The lowest grossing Best Picture winner was The Hurt Locker in 2010, which only grossed $50 million. Four of this year's nine Best Picture nominees have currently grossed even less than that. Silver Linings Playbook has only made $35 million, Beasts of the Southern Wild has only made $11 million, Zero Dark Thirty has only made $5 million, and Amour $340,798. That makes The Hurt Locker look like Titanic.
Is Quvenzhane Wallis the youngest person to be nominated for an Oscar? And who's the oldest?
Nine-year-old Wallis is not the youngest person ever to be nominated; that distinction belongs to Kramer vs. Kramer's Justin Henry, who was eight at the time of his nomination. Wallis is also tied with Skippy's Jackie Cooper. Wallis is, however, the youngest actress to ever be nominated in the Best Actress category, beating out former youngster Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider). If she wins, Wallis will be the youngest person to ever win an Oscar. On the flip side, Amour's Emmanuella Riva is, at 85-years-old, the oldest woman to be nominated for Best Actress. And she is the second oldest person to ever be nominated for an acting Oscar — Gloira Stuart, who was 87 when she was nominated for Titanic, holds that title.
Quvenzhane Wallis was nominated for her first-ever film. Has an actor or director ever won the award for his or her debut project?
This happens a lot more often than you would think — 23 times, to be precise. Five actresses have won the Best Actress Oscar for their debut films: Shirley Booth, Come Back, Little Sheba (1952); Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday (1953); Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins (1964); Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl (1968); Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God (1986).
Follow Abbey Stone on Twitter @abbeystone
[Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox]
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A kids’ movie without the cheeky jokes for adults is like a big juicy BLT without the B… or the T. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted may have a title that sounds like it was made up in a cartoon sequel laboratory but when it comes to serving up laughs just think of the film as a BLT with enough extra bacon to satisfy even the wildest of animals — or even a parent with a gaggle of tots in tow. Yes even with that whole "Afro Circus" nonsense.
It’s not often that we find exhaustively franchised films like the Madagascar set that still work after almost seven years. Despite being spun off into TV shows and Christmas specials in addition to its big screen adventures the series has not only maintained its momentum it has maintained the part we were pleasantly surprised by the first time around: great jokes.
In this third installment of the series – the trilogy-maker if you will – directing duo Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath add Conrad Vernon (director Monsters Vs. Aliens) to the helm as our trusty gang swings back into action. Alex the lion (Ben Stiller) Marty the zebra (Chris Rock) Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) are stuck in Africa after the hullaballoo of Madagascar 2 and they’ll do anything to get back to their beloved New York. Just a hop skip and a jump away in Monte Carlo the penguins are doing their usual greedy schtick but the zoo animals catch up with them just in time to catch the eye of the sinister animal control stickler Captain Dubois (Frances McDormand). And just like that the practically super human captain is chasing them through Monte Carlo and the rest of Europe in hopes of planting Alex’s perfectly coifed lion head on her wall of prized animals.
Luckily for pint-sized viewers Dubois’ terrifying presence is balanced out by her sheer inhuman strength uncanny guiles and Stretch Armstrong flexibility (ah the wonder of cartoons) as well as Alex’s escape plan: the New Yorkers run away with the European circus. While Dubois’ terrifying Doberman-like presence looms over the entire film a sense of levity (which is a word the kiddies might learn from Stiller’s eloquent lion) comes from the plan for salvation in which the circus animals and the zoo animals band together to revamp the circus and catch the eye of a big-time American agent. Sure the pacing throughout the first act is practically nonexistent running like a stampede through the jungle but by the time we're palling around under the big top the film finds its footing.
The visual splendor of the film (and man is there a champion size serving of it) the magnificent danger and suspense is enhanced to great effect by the addition of 3D technology – and not once is there a gratuitous beverage or desperate Crocodile Dundee knife waved in our faces to prove its worth. The caveat is that the soundtrack employs a certain infectious Katy Perry ditty at the height of the 3D spectacular so parents get ready to hear that on repeat until the leaves turn yellow.
But visual delights and adventurous zoo animals aside Madagascar 3’s real strength is in its script. With the addition of Noah Baumbach (Greenberg The Squid and the Whale) to the screenwriting team the script is infused with a heightened level of almost sarcastic gravitas – a welcome addition to the characteristically adult-friendly reference-heavy humor of the other Madagascar films. To bring the script to life Paramount enlisted three more than able actors: Vitaly the Siberian tiger (Bryan Cranston) Gia the Leopard (Jessica Chastain) and Stefano the Italian Sealion (Martin Short). With all three actors draped in European accents it might take viewers a minute to realize that the cantankerous tiger is one and the same as the man who plays an Albuquerque drug lord on Breaking Bad but that makes it that much sweeter to hear him utter slant-curse words like “Bolshevik” with his usual gusto.
Between the laughs the terror of McDormand’s Captain Dubois and the breathtaking virtual European tour the Zoosters’ accidental vacation is one worth taking. Madagascar 3 is by no means an insta-classic but it’s a perfectly suited for your Summer-at-the-movies oasis.

Favreau directed the first two installments of the Marvel comics movie adaptation, but announced in 2010 that he would not be taking charge of Iron Man 3 so he could work on other projects.
Shane Black was brought in as his replacement and production began in North Carolina on Wednesday (23May12).
However, Favreau hasn't cut all his ties to the upcoming sequel - he has been invited back to portray Happy Hogan once more, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The director, who will also serve as executive producer on the new film, made a cameo as the character in the 2008 original, and enjoyed more screen time as Hogan in Iron Man 2.
Actors Guy Pearce and Sir Ben Kingsley have also been added to the new cast of Iron Man 3, which will see Downey, Jr. return as the titular superhero, with Gwyneth Paltrow as his love interest and assistant, Pepper Potts.
The film is due for release in May, 2013.

Since his 2001 directorial debut Made, actor-turned-director Jon Favreau has churned out enough high-profile films (Elf and Cowboys &amp; Aliens among them) to earn notoriety for his behind-camera work. His biggest success as a filmmaker comes attached to the first two Iron Man films, in which he also played the small role of Harold "Happy" Hogan, bodyguard to hero Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Many were surprised when it was announced that Favreau wouldn't be taking on Iron Man 3, as director, but apparently, his choice to hand over the project to Shane Black doesn't deter his being cast once again as Hogan.
THR reports the update, not long after a cryptic Tweet by Favreau that reads, "There's news coming that makes me happy."
After a smaller appearance in Iron Man, Favreau beefed up his own role for the sequel, utilizing his character for a good deal of comic relief. Iron Man 3 writer/director Black is also known for his proclivity for mixing comedy with action and thrill — as such, Happy Hogan might again provide a good deal of laughs for Marvel audiences. Favreau is in the company of returning players Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle. Newcomers to the franchise include Ben Kingsley (as a central villain), Rebecca Hall (as a scientist and old flame of Stark's), and James Badge Dale (as a robot!).
[Photo Credit: David Edwards/Daily Celeb]
More:
Iron Man 3: What We Know So Far (Who's In, Who's Out, New Villain!)
Iron Man 3: Made in China
Jessica Chastain Won't Appear in Iron Man 3

New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the third and final installment in director Peter Jackson's fantasy epic, continued its reign at the box office with a cork-popping take of $51.2 million* over the holiday weekend. What's more, The Return of the King posted the best Christmas day gross ever, taking in $14.5 million on Dec. 25 alone. The film also crossed the $200 million mark after only 11 days, beating The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which took 12 days. That's definitely good news for New Line, whose Rings trilogy was a $300 million-plus make-or-break investment for the studio. Combined with the spirited take of four new wide releases, The Return of the King's strong legs also helped make this weekend the biggest Christmas weekend in box office history.The comedy Cheaper by the Dozen triumphed over rival newcomers hitting theaters this weekend, opening in second place with a generous three-day take of $28.2 million. The family comedy was followed by Cold Mountain, which debuted in the No. 3 position with nippy $14.5 million. Aided by its eight Golden Globe nominations and inclusion on many critics' Top 10 lists, the American Civil War drama is on a likely track for key Oscar nominations. Something's Gotta Give, now in its third week of release, placed fourth with $14.2 million, while the new Ben Affleck sci-fi thriller Paycheck, rounded out the Top Five with a foreseeable opening take of $13.9 million. The family pic Peter Pan, the last of this week's wide releases, kicked off in seventh place with a not-so-magical take of $11.4 million.Although this week's four new releases produced a combined first-day box office tally of almost $22 million, Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking service Exhibitor Relations, told The Associated Press Sunday the industry's total yearend box office revenues would likely fall short of last year's $9.3 billion record, marking the first year-to-year decline since 1991."The end of the year is looking pretty good," Dergarabedian said. "But not enough to jump ahead of last year's revenues ... because 2002 was so amazing."Last year, Hollywood benefited from an abundance of blockbusters, such as Spider-Man, Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and the sleeper hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.The Top 12 films this weekend grossed an ESTIMATED $168.6 million, up 26.39 percent from last weekend's $133.4 million take and up 8.18 percent from last year's $155.8 million.THE TOP TENNew Line Cinema's PG-13 rated fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King kept its No. 1 stronghold in its second week of release with an ESTIMATED $51.2 million (-29%) at 3,703 theaters (unchanged; $13,833 per theater). Its cume is approximately $223.6 million. Directed by Peter Jackson, it stars Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Liv Tyler, Miranda Otto, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan.Twentieth Century Fox's PG rated comedy Cheaper by the Dozen debuted in second place with $28.2 million in 3,298 theaters, with an $8,558 per theater average. In the film, a contemporary remake of the 1950 Walter Lang comedy based on the novel by Ernestine Gilbreth Carey and Frank B. Gilbreth, mayhem ensues as a couple moves their large family of 12 children from a small town to an affluent Chicago suburb.Directed by Shawn Levy, it stars Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Hilary Duff and Tom Welling. Miramax Films' R rated Civil War drama Cold Mountain opened in third place with $14.5 million in 2,167 theaters with a $6,691 per theater average. In the film, a Confederate soldier makes the arduous journey from the front lines of the Civil War to his home in Cold Mountain, N.C., where his ladylove has been fighting battles of her own.Directed by Anthony Minghella, it stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger. Sony Pictures' PG-13 rated romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give dropped one spot to fourth in its third week with an ESTIMATED $11.4 million (+24%) at 2,709 theaters (+32 theaters; $5,242 per theater). Its cume is approximately $56.3 million. Directed by Nancy Meyers, it stars Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Amanda Peet and Frances McDormand.Paramount Pictures' PG-13 rated sci-fi thriller Paycheck kicked off in the No. 5 position with $13.9 million in 2,762 theaters with a $5,033 per theater average. In the film, a "reverse-engineer" who has had three years of his memory erased by a multimillion-dollar corporation, tries to piece together his past using a collection of random objects.Directed by John Woo, it stars Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman.*Box office estimates provided by Exhibitor Relations, Inc.Sony Pictures' PG-13 rated drama Mona Lisa Smile fell from its runner-up position last week to sixth place in its second week with an ESTIMATED $11.5 million (unchanged) in 2,677 theaters (unchanged; $4,296 per theater). Its cume is approximately $31.4 million.Directed by Mike Newell, it stars Julia Roberts, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles.Universal Pictures' PG rated family pic Peter Pan opened in seventh place with $11.4 million at 2,813 theaters with a $4,053 per theater average. In the film, based on the classic J.M. Barrie novel, the Darling family children receive a visit from Peter Pan, who takes them to Neverland where an ongoing war with the evil pirate Captain Hook is taking place.Directed by P.J. Hogan, it stars Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Isaacs and Ludivine Sagnier. Warner Bros.' R rated period actioner The Last Samurai, fell four spots to eighth place in its fourth week with an ESTIMATED $8.3 million (+8%) in 2,557 theaters (-381; $3,273 per theater). Its cume is approximately $74.3 million.Directed by Edward Zwick, it stars Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Tony Goldwyn and Timothy Spall.Miramax Films' R rated dark comedy Bad Santa dropped two rungs to ninth place in its fifth week with an ESTIMATED $4.5 million (-11%) at 1,710 theaters (-515 theaters; $2,644 per theater). Its cume is approximately $50.9 million. Directed by Terry Zwigoff, it stars Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, Tony Cox and John Ritter.New Line Cinema's PG rated holiday comedy Elf fell five places in its eighth week to round out the Top 10 with an ESTIMATED $4.2 million (-22%) at 2,015 theaters (-436 theaters; $2,122 per theater). Its cume is approximately $164.8 million. Directed by Jon Favreau, it stars Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, Zooey Deschanel and Mary Steenburgen.OTHERSSony Picture Classics' PG-13 rated dance drama The Company debuted in 11 theaters with $96,939, with a $8,813 per theater average.The film centers on a Chicago ballet company--the difficult daily work, the intense pressures of performance and the richly textured behaviors of the dancers, whose professional and personal lives grow impossibly close.Directed by Robert Altman, it stars Neve Campbell, James Franco and Malcolm McDowell.New Market's R rated biopic Monster opened in four theaters with $84,156 with an impressive $21,039 per theater average. The dark tale is based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos, one of America's first female serial killers.Directed by Patty Jenkins, it stars Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci.WEEKEND COMPARISON Last year, New Line's PG-13 rated The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers came in at No. 1 in its second week with $48.8 million in 3,622 theaters (unchanged; $13,494 per theater); DreamWorks' biopic Catch Me If You Can opened in second place with $30 million 3,156 theaters ($9,523 per theater); Warner Brothers' PG-13 rated romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice followed in third place in its second week of release with $15.5 million in 2,755 theaters (unchanged; $5,633 per theater).
Go to our Box Office section for recent weekend movie analysis.